The Constitution Made Me Do It

Every day you are besieged to act on behalf “of, by and for” constituents and non-constituents, government and non-government organizations, victims and sympathizers, legal and illegal aliens, the media, and every other group imaginable.

Outside the beltway, these lobbyists are known as special interest groups, because they have special interests. They all want you to do something special, either for themselves or for someone else.

There is enormous pressure on you to provide for special interests. You weigh the costs versus benefits of each proposal. You weigh the cost versus benefits of supporting each bill, and consult with your advisers on the identity politics.

Many of the requests seem reasonable – there’s always a sympathetic victim of something, somewhere, a potential vote. But there’s trouble ahead because, at some point, you’ll run out of other peoples’ money.

So, what to do? You’re not there to grant wishes, like the genie of the lamp.

But if you say “No,” then how can you arm yourself against the inevitable epithets – being called racist, sexist, homophobic, insensitive, or whatever. You know, the usual.

The next time some “reporter” shoves that microphone in your face and asks you “Why, Senator, why did you vote against it?”

Just look him or her straight in the eyes and tell her:

“The Constitution made me do it.”

Then, pull out your Pocket Constitution (you do have one, don’t you?), hold it up between you and that reporter, and quote James Madison:

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.

Okay then, use your own words. But if you don’t remind people, early and often, that the federal government is not there to provide for the needs of individual citizens then who will?

They’re not going to learn this from the Common Core version of “Civics.” They won’t read it in the New York Times. Barack Obama sure as hell is not going to tell them.